5 Tips To Help Structure Your Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

As daunting as the thought of entering the world of entrepreneurship may be with all its uncertainty, there are ways in which you can structure to your life and, in-so-doing, set yourself up for success.

The allure of being your own boss may sound very appealing, but it is without doubt that starting a successful business will require you to work harder than you ever did, or would have, in a corporate role.

My first few months as a full-time entrepreneur were spent relishing the fact that I could do what I pleased with my time, and trying my best to look busy.

One piece of advice I wish I had in the beginning is that structure is everything, so below are some tips for you to add structure to your entrepreneurial life.

1. There’s comfort in familiarity

Having routine activities not only adds structure to your life, it also helps your brain get used to tapping into different states of productivity at set times of each day.

One positive aspect of having a nine-to-five job is that you are forced to be productive during certain hours of each day, and because the brain is also a muscle, it grows into that particular habit.

2. Work ON your business, not just IN it

Although working towards having a great product or service offering, and ensuring that you deliver on the value proposition should be your main concerns as an entrepreneur starting out, it is critical to work ON your business as much as you do IN it.

Working on your business entails taking time out each day to re-evaluate points such as your strategy in entering the market, market growth prospects, ideating around new and innovative ways to attract more business, and spending time out of the office because that is where your most valuable lessons will be learnt.

3. Health is Wealth

A healthy mind and body go hand in hand. To this effect, be sure not to forget to eat well, do some exercise and sleep well.

As romanticised as the idea of ‘burning the midnight oil’ may be, not forgetting those irritating “while you were sleeping” social media posts, the reality is that sleeping well results in you being more alert and in a better position to optimise productivity in your daily activities.

4. Your NETWORK is your NETWORTH

The value of intentionally spending more time out of the office is that you are sure to meet new people. Always be ready to share your offering and value proposition in one sentence; surround yourself with smart people who will argue with you; and network as much as possible.

5. If it’s not leading you closer to the mountain top, don’t do it

In his famous 2012 commencement speech titled ‘Make Good Art’, Neil Gaiman advises that you imagine your big hairy audacious goal (the notorious BHAG) as being the summit of a big mountain.

Using this vision, evaluate whether or not an activity is getting you closer to, or further away from reaching this summit before taking it on. Although each business has its nuances, and there is no ‘cookie cutter’ approach to deciding how to allocate your time, I have found this approach very effective in making decisions about what work to take on and how I spend my time.

A financial analyst by training and entrepreneur by calling, Sechaba is founder & Chief Geek at the Scoody Geek Clothing Lab, an eCommerce platform for the Scoody (Scarf Hoody). Sechaba also founded Africa Rebranded, a youth organization that facilitates annual intra-African cultural exchange programs for social entrepreneurs; which led to his selection as a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum. Sechaba has experience in small business development advisory, and was involved in designing an accelerator program for the Allan Gray-Orbis Foundation, which is one of only four of its kind on the African continent. Sechaba holds an honours degree in Financial Analysis & Portfolio Management from UCT; and serves as Vice-President of Ventures at the Association of Allan Gray Fellows.

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How To Launch An Online Coaching Business

Work from home? Control your own schedule? Impact people across the world with your product or service?

Internet marketing is on the rise for a reason. It gives you the ability to scale your business to a global level without forfeiting your personal freedom. Still, there’s one question that still prevents entrepreneurs from entering the online space: “Is it really possible to make a living off the internet?”

Not only is it possible, it’s lucrative when done correctly. We live in the Golden Age of internet marketing. Thanks to social media, everyone can get in front of a camera and pitch their idea to the masses. Good enough, right?

Not quite. These days a big idea will only get you started; it’s what you do to bundle and package that idea that matters. Here are the three steps you need to take to launch a profitable online business.

Flesh out your idea

Of course, before you create your product, you need an idea. Your idea must solve a specific problem that a specific group of people face. Make sure you establish that before you move forward.

Now, before you begin creating your product, you need to write your sales copy. Your sales copy (or sales video, if that’s what you prefer) should be enticing enough to take prospects from “I’m interested in this” to “I need to buy this now.”

But, why write your sales copy before creating your product? Too many entrepreneurs write copy that promises a lot but delivers next to nothing. When you write your copy before creating your product, you build the blueprint to create a product that satisfies your customers’ needs –without overpromising.

Your sales copy should address the prospect’s problem, explain how your product is the solution to that problem, and include a list of bullet points that summarise the benefits of your product. Make sure you nail the first 500 words – easily the most read section of your sales copy. Finally, always create a sense of urgency or people at home won’t be motivated to buy your product.

People always ask me, “Well, what if I’m not a good writer?” That’s OK. Just say your pitch out loud, record it and send it to an online transcribing service. For a relatively inexpensive price, you’ll get your sales copy written out for you. Just review it, copy it and paste it to your website and boom – there’s your sales copy!

Build the “know, love and trust” factor

Most people believe you need to sell prospects first, then deliver results. But, what if you flip it? It’s much easier to sell someone once they know, love and trust you as an authority in your space, rather than selling them on your product before they even know if you can deliver the results you’re promising.

That’s why the most successful internet marketers – including myself – give away boatloads of free content via blogs and videos. Granted, the stuff we give away for free could easily be packaged together into a high-priced course, but that would be short-sighted. You don’t want prospects to buy from you once and move on – you want them to become long-term paying clients.

See, you deliver free quality content to your prospects, then they take it and implement it into their businesses. They start to see results in advance, which leads them to trust you more and more. Soon, they begin to crave more knowledge from you, and their willingness to pay for your products and services increases.

Eventually those prospects become your most loyal clients. They buy your front-end products, your upsells and your flagship products – all of which I’ll get to in just a second. But, before you get that far, make sure your prospects know, love and trust you before you worry about selling them anything.

Create your front-end product and upsells

Once your copy is written and you’re building the know, love and trust factor, your next move is to create a front-end product – a product that’s easy to sell. This could be an ebook, a membership site or a course that comes with follow-along videos.

Now, you might be tempted to charge a high price for that product. Here’s the thing: Most of the money is made on the back end. I’ll talk more about this in a second, but for now just remember that the front-end product is not the final product you’re really trying to sell them. I – along with many of my fellow internet marketers – don’t mind breaking even or losing money on front-end products because I know I’ll more than make my money back with my flagship product.

Instead, your aim should be to use that front-end product to upsell them instead. So, after they purchase your front-end product, offer them three different upsells. An upsell is a higher-priced product or service you offer a customer after they’ve bought something from you. These upsells should be done-for-you, and they should enhance the front-end product by making it easier to understand or more efficient at getting results.

Why are upsells so important? Besides adding value to your front-end product, you’ll be able to recruit more affiliates to promote your business. An affiliate promotes your product to their own audience for a commission fee. If you make money through upsells, affiliates will choose to work with your business over your competitors because you can pay them higher commissions. The payoff? You get more traffic going to your webpage and ultimately more bottom line revenue.

Move them to your flagship product

That’s how you set up the front end of your online business. But, what about the back end? Remember I said that most of your money will be made on the back end and not the front end?

That’s why you need a flagship product to pitch your clients once they’re done with your front-end product. But, what in the world does a flagship product look like?

It could be high-end coaching sessions. It could be a spot in your exclusive mastermind group. It could even be a suite of software that teaches them everything they need to know about their industry. The front-end product is a way to get your clients through the door; your back-end product is the money-maker product, the one they’re more likely to buy once they’ve already purchased something from you.

I’ll give you an example. People will often find my products online. Usually when they finish using those products, they’re still hungry for more knowledge and advice. At this point, they’re considered qualified leads for my mastermind program, so we make sure they know about that programme and how to become a member of it.

That leaves you with one problem: How do you send marketing emails to every single person that buys your front-end product/upsells? It’s basically impossible, unless you’re in front of your computer screen 24/7 (which I’m sure you’re not). Fear not, because it’s actually easy to do when you use an auto-responder system to send out all those emails on your behalf.

It’s simple: When your clients purchase your front-end product, the system automatically sends them emails from you. That way, you can build a sequence where you give away even more of your best free content before sending them an offer for your flagship product. By the time they get to your flagship product, they’ll be so confident in your expertise and results that they happily pay the higher price for your higher level of service.

That’s the simple science behind converting your prospects into clients, and your clients into fiercely loyal clients. It’s how you sell your highest-priced online programmes without running into any of the typical sales objections. Follow these three steps and start building your own online business empire today.

How To Make Course Corrections And Finding Your Differentiator

An advisor whom we trust, and who has been involved in our business since launch would like to buy into the business. We could make use of the cash injection, and we believe his experience would be beneficial to the business. His condition is that he occupies a board seat, and that we create an advisory board that he can also sit on. Should we do it? — Mvepho

If you trust the guy and need the money, do the deal. A board seat is fine. Voting should be based on shareholding, not hands raised. Don’t allow for any special minority rights like veto over budget or right to appoint CFO.

An advisory board for a start-up seems a tad overkill, but if he wants one, give it. He’s either going be an ass, or he won’t. Only one way to find out: Get into bed.

The key provisions of the shareholder agreement relate to divorce. How do you get out of relationship? There are three key parts to consider: Forced sale provisions (death, disability, prison, leave country, etc); Valuation formula for exit (5 x NPAT); Agree to arbitration being binding.

The simpler you keep things, the easier it will be to part ways if things don’t work out.

I need to attract customers away from their existing suppliers who offer a similar product to mine. My value proposition is convenience and quality. What other value should I consider? My main customers are restauranteurs and households (flats), and I provide the convenience by instant deliveries of food (chicken and eggs) to their doorstep. — Mam

Pick one differentiator. If one isn’t enough, your product isn’t good enough.

In this case maybe it’s convenience. Or maybe it’s speed of delivery (30 minutes from order). Or maybe it’s the best eggs in SA.

Whatever. Ask customers what the most important thing is, then focus on pushing that as your unique selling proposition.

That doesn’t mean you ignore the other inputs. It just means your pitch is predicated on one key selling point.

My partners and I have managed to get an investment opportunity for our app but now we have an issue about how we should spend that money.

I think we should first get some traction with users with a MVP even though we’re not delivering on our value proposition in the beginning i.e selling before we commit to building and iterating based on user feedback before adding new features.

My partners think that now that we have an investment opportunity, we should build the app with all the features because that’s what differentiates us in the market.

How would you handle a situation like this? — Tula

Start with MVP. Get feedback. Iterate.

Do not start with an app including all the bells and whistles. Firstly, it will take too long to make and get bogged in scope creep. Secondly, if you’re on the wrong track and you’ve already spent all your money, its game over. Insert coin.

Rather start small. It lets you course correct faster and keeps you in the game longer.

My waiter has contracted a chronic infectious disease (not HIV). He’s worked for me for seven years, but I can’t risk my staff/customers getting sick. What should I do? — Bob

The business comes before individuals. It can be painful losing a loyal long-time staff member, but you have to do it if he jeopardises your business survival. Exhaust all options, but if there is no medical solution then you have no choice. But you can’t just cut him loose. If you do that, all your other long-standing staff will look at you and think, “He doesn’t care for me.” Morale will go down, and your business may fail anyway.

If you are forced to lose a loyal staff member, you must go out of your way to ensure he/she is financially taken care of, either through a pension or a lump-sum payment.

It’s the right thing to do, and it will show your other staff that you have their backs through thick and thin.

Read this

Alan Knott-Craig’s latest book, 13 Rules for being an Entrepreneur is now available.

What it’s about

It’s easy to be an entrepreneur. It’s also easy to fail. What’s hard is being a successful entrepreneur.

For an entrepreneur, there is only one important metric of success: Money. But life is not only about making money. It’s about being happy.

This book is a collection of tips and wisdom that will help you make money without forgoing happiness.

(Infographic) The 20 Most Common Reasons Start-ups Fail And How To Avoid Them

So, you have a great new idea or invention, and you are ready to open your start-up business. But, you’ve been scared by the well-publicised statistic about start-up failure – more than 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first four years.

Opening and operating a successful start-up requires some luck hard-work and thoughtful planning – as well as the ability to adapt that plan. Having been involved as a consultant to numerous start-ups over the past decade, I have seen some fail, some achieve a modicum of success, and some make it big.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts that will help guide your start-up to the promised land:

Business plan

Don’t think that a great idea or a great product is enough. The start-up graveyard is littered with amazing ideas and products that have failed.

Do have a business plan that includes every aspect of how you will run your operation and how it will be successful. It should include all anticipated costs, marketing, manufacturing, the technology required and staffing. A business plan should also include how you will market and sell your product.

Research

Don’t think your idea or product is original and because you and your friends think it’s amazing, means that it is and there’s a market for it.

Do lots of research before you spend your money. As a consultant, I have on three separate occasions been asked to help with a business plan for a start-up, where I discovered almost exactly what they are doing has been tried before and failed. In two of those instances, the previous failures indicated that the idea wasn’t good. In the third instance, we were able to learn from the previous mistakes and actually make a successful run at it. The number one reason start-ups fail is that there is no market for their offering.

Funding

Don’t assume you will get financing other than the money you start with from yourself, family and friends. Only a very small percentage of start-ups get Venture Capital (VC) funding and in fact, the funding bubble has burst. And that means early-stage start-ups are getting little or no love from outside equity firms.

Do assume the initial funding you have will be all you get, so the goal is to have the lowest burn rate possible. Therefore, your initial business plan should have a route to profitability and sustainability before the money runs out. The number two reason start-ups fail is that they run out of money.

Investor deck

Don’t think that your expert knowledge of your business, a well-developed business plan and proficiency in PowerPoint are enough to craft an investor deck that will get a private equity firm’s attention.

Do hire anexpert consultant who has done this before. VCs can smell an embellished or amateurish deck 100 miles away. You typically only get one look by a potential investor, so make sure your investor deck is the absolute best it can be.

Tech

Don’t assume that technology will be easy or come as scheduled. In almost every start-up I have been involved with, where the need for technology advancement was crucial to success, there were unanticipated issues and delays.

Do assume that there will be delays in technological deliveries and therefore you need to leave a buffer for that in your business plan. Do have a competent development team and if they are not performing, replace them as soon as possible.

Team

Don’t think that you can go at this alone or that it will be easy to assemble a winning team.

Do select your team members carefully, trying to add as much diversity as possible. The most successful start-ups that I have seen have mixed experience and newbies as well as the more traditional kind of diversity. The number three reason startups fail is that they have the wrong team.

Ego

Don’t think customers are just waiting for your offering and investors will be lining up to give you money simply because your idea is amazing – even if you have been a successful serial entrepreneur in the past.

Do be humble and realistic about everyone you meet. Relationships are a key to success, and like with personal relationships, if you want to be successful, be sure you see yourself as others see you. I have witnessed a lack of self-awareness and a big ego from owner’s doom potentially successful start-ups.

Old-Fashioned values

Don’t think you are leaving a nine-to-five job for the easy and flexible life of being your own boss. A start-up is a seven-day-a-week occupation and now it’s your money and reputation that are solely on the line.

Do plan to work harder than you ever have with little return on your efforts for an extended period. Do be honest with everyone you interact with, as your reputation will ultimately be a key to your success.

To have big success as a startup, you’ll have to master all the do’s and don’ts above, and that’s a daunting task. So, before you begin, the question you must ask yourself is: “How badly do you want it?!”